Today is the first day of August. Traditionally, my school district always starts the day after Labor Day…not this year. We are starting school on August 26. Allow me to repeat myself: today is the first day of August. AUGUST!! This means that in 25 days I will be meeting my students! This also means that in 25 days I will have to be ready for a brand new school year. *insert wide eyed emoji*
With back to school quickly approaching, it’s time to think about how I am going to take all I am learning from my MAET courses back to my classroom. This week, I sat down and wrote a lesson plan that should push my classroom into the 21st century. (We’ve been there, right?) After much research on 21st century learning, digital literacies and related key competencies, I’ve crafted something I believe goes beyond what I have been doing in my classroom for the last two years. When drafting my 21st century lesson plan, I wanted to be sure it was something allowed my students to learn something new, be engaged, but would also make sense for our learning objectives. (Hello, TPACK.) I decided to go with a giant assignment we do every year in the spring: a research project and Non-Fiction book on animals. Every year this is always one of my students’ favorite writing pieces. It’s almost like they are relieved to be able to report on their findings instead of having to create a narrative story. Also, if you’ve ever met a 6 or 7-year-old, you know that they LOVE to share random facts about whatever they’re interested in. This is a great outlet! Traditionally, students’ research for their Non-Fiction books is done using a couple of books we already have in our classroom, neighboring classrooms, or our library. However, sometimes this can be challenging if the books don’t have the answers they are looking for. This makes the perfect opportunity to use technology. I decided my students would use multiple means of researching including the traditional books we’ve always used, an app called Epic that houses books online, and two kid-friendly search engines: Kiddle and KidRex. My final online tool that students will be using to present their findings is Book Creator. I am so excited for them to use it, I might not be able to wait until spring! The most challenging and time-consuming part of creating my 21st century lesson plan was actually creating a book myself! I made a book on Book Creator called All About Puppies (since they are our classroom theme). Although it took time I wished I could’ve been working on my own assignments for my classes, I had so much fun doing it. Sometimes I forget that I need to stop and put myself in the shoes of my students. Using all these online tools in one lesson might be a challenge for them, but I can’t wait to see them grow as a writer, reader, and a digital citizen. Here’s to striving to be a #classroomofthe21stcentury!
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